Yattendon
Yattendon maps (2 available)
Map of Berkshire
Beautifully hand-drawn and coloured, dating from around 1840
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Yattendon books (10 available)
Yattendon memories
Read and share memories of Yattendon and Berkshire inspired by Frith photos
The hiding place
When I was ten years old this old tree was a delight. Ancient and hollow inside, we children were able to crawl inside while mother did her shopping. We watched people pass on their way to and from the blacksmith, the grocer or the butcher, firmly believing they had no idea we were there. If we were lucky we would have been bought an ice lolly or a sweet to eat in the tree. It was often thought by visitors that it was an oak because of the eponymous pub in the Square. It was, I think, an elm.
Now the tree is long gone, replaced by something small but with nice seats around on a paved area where villagers can ...read more here
Contributed by Maggi Stamp-Loshak
The Well House
This was where everyone waited for the buses that took us east to Pangbourne and Reading or west to Newbury, our main shopping town. Newbury had a thriving market twice a week and buses were frequent, eight per day.
The Well House did indeed have a well beneath it and following a tragedy at the Royal Oak pub in which our next door neighbour was killed, the building was renovated.
Originally it was an open wooden structure supported on a low brick wall but after the deep well had been filled it had the sides bricked in. Whilst this is less drafty when waiting for a bus it meant that we couldn't see it coming nor see who else was ...read more here
Contributed by Maggi Stamp-Loshak
fear of wells
The well incident at yattendon scared my father. We had heard about it through relatives and we lived in east tytherley at the time. I remember my father spending a weekend tapping floors and trying to lift flag stones in our kitchen because he was convinced that there was a well under our home- there wasnt.
Contributed by joy milligan
The Royal Oak
'The Oak' is the only pub and hotel in the village and in the fifties our next door neighbour was the cleaner there. She would cycle to the village from the farm on a heavy green bicycle in a slow and ponderous manner that has stayed with me to this day. I must have been about nine when the awful event happened that haunted me for years. Police came to the village school one day to ask our neighbour's daughter where her mum was going that morning as she was not at work. The doors in the porch of the pub had been sticking for some months and the cleaner had complained and asked for something to be done, to no ...read more here
Contributed by Maggi Stamp-Loshak
Extracts From Yattendon & Berkshire books
The site of this church on the edge of the sprawling tiny village of Frilsham dates
back to pre-Roman times, when sacrifices to Jupiter were offered. The circular
churchyard lends credence to this, as well as the rock outside the porch which may
have been the base of a special altar. The nave, chancel and sanctuary belong to the
Norman period, and the sanctuary was originally in the form of an apse. The windows
on the south wall of the nave are 15th-century. The church was restored in 1834 when
a brick tower and porch were added, and a mass dial can be seen on the left of the
south door. St Frideswide lived in Saxon Britain and died in 735. She founded an
abbey in Oxenford, now Oxford, and she is the patron saint of the city and its
university. Her commemoration date in the English church calendar is October 19,
and her shrine is in Christ Church Cathedral. She took refuge in a swineherd’s hovel
in Frilsham woods after fleeing from her abbey with three nuns to escape the
attentions of a Pagan prince.
An extract from from"Berkshire Churches Photographic Memories".
Viewed across a new orchard is the mansion of Moore Close. The original house, built by Mr Hutchinson Brown,
was bought by Charles Birch Crisp who, in 1910, commissioned newly-qualified architect Oliver Hill to enlarge the
house and design the gardens. Newbold Missionary College moved to the site in February 1946.
An extract from from"Wokingham and Bracknell Photographic Memories".
From its depot in Reading, having stopped at Shinfield, Arborfield, Eversley and Yateley, a Thorneycroft J Type bus operated by the Thames Valley Traction Company has yet to make a pick up in Derby Green before continuing through Blackwater, to its destination in Camberley. It seems a fitting picture to conclude this selection of photographs and illustrate the pace of life in days gone by.
An extract from from"Wokingham and Bracknell Photographic Memories".
The Hope and Anchor, seen here on the right, has changed little in the present day, but now includes the small
gabled building on its left, which had been a blacksmiths for many years. Today the British Legion hall will be found
to the rear of the next building along, which in this photograph bears the name ‘Wokingham Ex-Servicemen’s Club’.
An extract from from"Wokingham and Bracknell Photographic Memories".
The 15th-century building in the foreground has had a variety of uses, including that of a public house named The
Cricketers which ran from the mid 19th century until its closure in 1909. This picture shows it as a fish and chip shop.
In recent years it has doubled as a tailor’s workroom with private accommodation above. The tall narrow building
immediately to the left was at one time home to James Seaward, who was reputedly the inspiration for the character of
Tom in Charles Kingsley’s book ‘The Water Babies’. Beyond is a fine run of 15th- and 16th-century buildings.
An extract from from"Wokingham and Bracknell Photographic Memories".